Gladiator is one of the most legendary historical films of all time. This is also due to the acting performance delivered by many actors. Tragically, an important actor passed away during the filming. Instead of recasting his role, filmmakers used tricks to still present the character.
Which actor is it about? Oliver Reed plays the former fighter Proximo in Gladiator, who manages the gladiator school where Maximus also ends up, training future attractions for the Colosseum.
Before the end of filming, Oliver Reed tragically passed away from a heart attack. Instead of simply recasting or replacing the character, filmmakers used cinematic tricks to honor his performance.
Cuts, CGI, and old footage
How was Proximo shown despite the missing scenes in the film? As CinemaStrix describes in a video (via YouTube), the character had to die in the film, yet Proximo’s role had to remain in the film.
A mix of different cinematic tricks was used to depict the character along with footage of Reed in the film. To kill him off in the film, a double was used, shown only from behind.
For other scenes, CGI was utilized in combination with unused footage. This was combined with additional double scenes, creating a coherent story with the character.
The most important aspect here is the cuts. Cuts tell the progression of a conversation or action. Old scenes that were not used are combined with new shots, creating a dialogue or sequence that was not originally planned but still works. An important point is that all cuts match the continuity of the scene.
All of this was innovative at the time. CGI was not yet widely used, especially not in combination with other techniques.
You can see what this looks like in this section of a video from CinemaStrix:
Other films and series also use CGI to have deceased actors in the film
In which films and series is something similar done? As Screen Rant reports, actors who have passed away also participated in other series and films.
- In The Sopranos, actress Nancy Marchand died before the 3rd season. She plays Tony’s mother. To give them a final scene, old footage and doubles were also used.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman died before he could shoot his scenes in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Here, too, the mentioned tricks were used.
- In Star Wars: Episode 9, old dialogues and scenes from Carrie Fisher were used to give her character an appearance in the final part of the trilogy.
- During the filming of Fast & Furious 7, Paul Walker died in a car accident. His brother took over for the remainder of the film.
This topic is indeed controversial. The question often arises whether deceased individuals should be utilized with CGI for films at all. Nowadays, this is not only done for actors who passed away during filming. For Star Wars: Rogue One, actor Peter Cushing was used to show Moff Tarkin again. However, Cushing passed away in 1994, which is why CGI was entirely relied upon. A war film by Clint Eastwood is praised by historians because it takes a step that is uncommon in Hollywood
